Criminy, you spend two days away from your blog and the A's turn over a sixth of
their roster. That's a lot of names in the title. Let's look at the matched
pairs.

Derek Norris, who was already on the 40-man roster, comes up to be the new
backup (?) catcher, with Josh Donaldson heading back to AAA. Donaldson should
take heart that he might still have a future with this team as a backup (or even
three corners player, at first, third, and catcher) if Kurt Suzuki is traded and
Norris ascends to the starting role. Norris was in the lineup in his first game
up, but sat the next two days, so it remains to be seen what the playing-time
split will be. In theory, it might be hard to trade Suzuki if he's relegated to
a backup role, but you also wonder whether you bring up Norris at all if he's
not going to play.

The obvious answer is that the two split time in a more equitable fashion than
the A's catching situation usually calls for. Maybe Norris starts two days out
of five, or even one out of three, rather than the one out of four or five or
even sometimes six that Anthony Recker and Donaldson and Landon Powell had been
used to.

Norris hit for good power in Sacramento (.474 SLG), but wasn't getting on base
at a stellar rate (.331), so the stats don't scream "PROMOTE HIM NOW." Stats, of
course, only tell a small part of the story of a minor-leaguer with 236 PAs. If
the scouts thought he was ready, then you do what you have to do.

My first look at him, in Thursday's game, prompted this reaction: "Whoa, dude is
big." Norris is thickly built, closer to Bengie Molina than to Kurt Suzuki or
Jason Kendall, who have been the A's catchers since 2005. I basically forgot
that a backstop could be built like a house rather than a ... a hut or
something, I don't know.

Jordan Norberto returning from the disabled list added a lefty back into the
bullpen. With four lefties already there, this pointed toward a port-sider
getting the axe, with the obvious candidate being Pedro "Petey Figs" Figueroa.
The move was made and little further comment is needed.

The Collin Cowgill move is unfortunate. He hurt his ankle trying to stop his
momentum as he chased a ball that got by him in Friday's game, a Brandon Belt
fliner that Cowgill dived for but could not come up with. He stayed in the game
a while longer, but came out when the A's made a pitching change. The A's (by
which I mean Bob Melvin and Cowgill himself) told Jane
Lee
that he could be coming off the DL at the minimum.

In the meantime, the paired move is calling up Brandon Hicks, an infielder who
was claimed off waivers from the Braves in mid-March. The stats are
here, so I won't run
them down for you, but suffice it to say that this is a guy who hadn't hit in
his first five professional seasons, but suddenly started smacking doubles and
homers all around this year in Sacramento. Park, PCL, etc., sure, but here are
the players with a higher OPS than Hicks (>50 PA):

Josh Donaldson (1339, 53 PA)

Brandon Moss (952, 224 PA)

Daric Barton (931, 85 PA)

Now, sure, that's not exactly a who's who of top prospects and studs, but the
point is that there are and have been a bunch of other decent hitters on
Sacramento's roster (e.g. Chris Carter, Michael Taylor, the aforementioned Derek
Norris) who are not out-hitting Hicks, so we can't just wave our hands and
mumble about the PCL.

Which is not to say that he's any good! His pre-season PECOTA forecast called
for a .232 TAv (remembering that TAv is scaled like batting average, with .260
league average -- .232 is not good). He does have some experience at being
versatile, however, having played all four infield spots last year and getting
time at both second and short this season. Reports and FRAA show good defensive
skills at short, which ideally translate well to the other (easier) positions.

Replacing an outfielder with an infielder is an interesting move -- Michael
Taylor could have come back up to sit around on the bench, or the A's could
always turn to Jermaine Mitchell. One wonders whether Hicks will get any time in
the next two weeks, perhaps relegating Sogard to a backup-utility role, or
whether both guys will mainly sit and watch the three regular infielders (plus
Brandon Moss, who I don't really count -- first base is a position that I
consider on but not of the infield) and perfect their tiddlywinks skills.

Finally, Bartolo Colon hit the DL and Tyson Ross is back as a starter again. The
less we have to contemplate Ross's "I'm like Ryan Cook with his inability to
find the strike zone except you have to watch me for four to six innings at a
time" act, the better. Unfortunately, we will have to contemplate such for at
least a few starts until Colon returns to us.